WALL-PAINTINGS, AT LUDGVAN, MYLOR, &C. 55 
arise, for a very similar representation occurs in other pictures of 
St. Christopher; and, under the designation of “ Hermit with 
Lantern,” is even quoted as one of the emblems of the Saint. * 
It was a Holy Hermit (so runs the well-known legend) who 
urged Reprobus, a man of gigantic stature, to abandon evil pur- 
suits, and devote himself to the good work of carrying Pilgrims 
across a river, beside which was the anchorite’s cell. Reprobus 
obeying, earned for himself the name of Christo-pher, (Christ- 
carrier), by bearing over, in the course of his labours, the Mysteri- 
ous One described in St. John, i, 3, when the full weight of the 
world seemed unexpectedly to come upon his shoulders. The 
Hermit was therefore commonly introduced as the companion and 
director of the stalwart Saint; and was sometimes referred to, as 
Mr. Way states, under the name of St. Cucufates. 
It may not be too wide a digression here to notice the famous 
wood-cut, dated 1423, found in Germany, and so often reproduced 
in “fac-simile”;; for, like the examples under consideration, it 
displays on one side of the great central figure of St. Christopher, 
a man with either a lantern or a cista, before an oratory door— 
(not a Cornish oratory we may presume)—apparently guiding the 
burdened Saint across the water, and as he seems to be inserting 
his finger into a small aperture in the front of what he holds, he 
must be either directing attention to the light, or opening an 
orifice through which it may stream forth, assuming that it is a 
lantern which he bears, and that his posture is significant. Should 
it be a cista, as Dr. Borlase would perhaps conclude, he may be 
pointing to the Host. On the opposite side a man is shewn 
toiling along under the weight of a full sack which he carries 
from the mill. 
It may be, that a special meaning will manifest itself in con- 
nection with these two figures—making them accessories to the 
leading intention of the design, and in a manner, almost identical 
with it. On the one hand, the Grist-carrier may have been put in 
to afford a rough clue to the name, by a play on the word (Gristo- 
pher). On the other, an emblem of light upheld in the world 
* Husenbeth’s List, p. 31. St. Christopher, Martyr, c. A.D. 250. 
¢ See Life of the Saint; Jacobus de Voragine; Golden Legend, &e. 
~ Chambers’s Book of Days, Vol. 2, pp. 122-3; Illustd. Lond. N., 1844, 
p. 252, &e. 
